Tuesday, June 03, 2014

Editing“Wind/Water/Salt”. Sometimes I feel
guilty that I ignore this wretched thing for days on end. Then I have an
epiphany and I can work like crazy. This month’s epiphany was who the real bad
guy is, so I had to go backward and seed that in a bit. So so much for this
being a “don’t look back” draft. I am 2/3 through, though. Now I’m trying to
work that character into the end of act II.

Connecting
--Circulating--KnittingThis month I came up with a stupid new rule
for myself so I would finish some things. That’s because I’ve got three
projects hanging around since 2013 (two I started in December, but still). If I
finish one thing and finish a stage of another, I can start a new project.
Here’s how it went:“Portree” (Martin Storey Scottish
Collection).
Finished. Ran out of the main color (black) so I did the neck in pink instead.
It looks fine. Probably better, actually, since I don’t really look that great
in all the black I wear. “Kaffeklatsch” (self-designed).Finished the second ball of yarn so I could
start something else. Started the second sleeve, which unfortunately used the
rest of my US1 needles, meaning I couldn’t start the sock I wanted. “Ceremonial Armour” (Kaffe Fassett, knit from
a photo).
Sewed and cut the steeks, then started the first sleeve. Finally, after about six months of letting it sit. “St. Anthony’s Ribbon” (self-designed). Still slogging
away on the first sleeve. I also
finished sewing a shirt I started about two years ago. I was hung up on the
buttonholes. Pathetic.

Monday, June 02, 2014

“China Mountain Zhang” by
Maureen McHugh. It kept winding up on my list, which is stupid, so I just
requested it from the library. Problem solved! The trigger actually was an
Atlantic article about other literary references that might better explain the
NSA/Snowden thing than Orwell. In Orwell, everyone is surveilled pretty much
equally. In Zhang’s world, only certain people really have to worry about
surveillance, which is more true of our current situation. Zhang was a really
well-drawn character, and I was happy to see him come to an optimistic end.

“The
Blue Blazes” by Chuck Wendig. His blog is one of my daily
stops. I had meant to read “blackbirds” by same, but I didn’t buy it, and then
this one was on (one day only!) for 1.99 on kindle, so I bought it instead.
Twice actually, by accident. I started it, then I got some library books so I
set it aside, then I started it again. If I read this to see if his advice was
worth taking, um, yes, yes it is. The plot moved along swimmingly. Every time
Mookie would foreshadow something terrible happening, it would come out worse.
The characters all resolved in such satisfying ways. Brilliant.

“Howl’s
Moving Castle” by Diana Wynne Jones. Absolutely fabulous. In the
Q&A at the back, she said Howl was based on her teenaged son spending two
hours in the bathroom.

“Range
of Ghosts” by Elizabeth Bear. The whole series is out now,
so this is a good time to read them! One thing that seemed really right was that sex leads to pregnancy. That is so obvious, and so often overlooked in stories. Also, the horses seemed believable. I'm looking forward to things being explained in the subsequent volumes, especially about Bansh.